All that time never truly seeing the things the way they were...

[moneymatters]

Scrooge walked away from the balcony room, shaking his head lightly and chuckling, faintly, to himself. What an interesting day this had turned out to be.

At a thought he glanced beside him, watching Louie out of the corner of one eye. When he figured they were far enough away from their other guests, he spoke.

"I never would've figured you for a romantic, lad. That seems more Huey's area than yours." A more defined chuckle. "No offense at tha', o'course."

Comments

[talkyourwayout]

Louie chuckled, and took a seat at Gobo's side. "The Everspring, huh? I don't think you've mentioned this place before. Why'd you want to show me?"

[gobetween]

"Because of what it took to find it." Resting back on his hands, he looked up and around them at the cavern.

"Not that long ago, really, I think just before I decided to leave Fraggle Rock and explore... There had been a drought. All the water had dried up for us, the Doozers, everybody. The problem was that the flow from the Everspring here wasn't reaching us, so the Five of us set out to find out the problem.

"Thing was, it came at a pretty low period for me. I've always wanted to... well, to make my mark, you know? In a positive way." There was no secret he'd messed up a lot in his life. "I wanted to create something that would solve everybody's problems, would be some kind of force that would help people long after I was gone."

He shifted some, resting his arms across his legs. "Taking a perilous journey down to the very center of the Rock wasn't exactly what I had wanted to do... Especially not after the last time I did something like that." He chuckled weakly; being privy to Gobo's thoughts, for just a moment there Louie would feel a little bite of cold air, the ringing of distant bells; then Gobo spoke again.

"We still set off though, because it needed to be done, and only Fraggles would be able to make the trip since Doozers are so small. Down, down, down we went, until we got here." He sat up and held up his hands together, then spread them apart. The view around them shifted, until the mouth of the Everspring was absolutely choked with trash. "It was a pretty massive problem, and it took two teams of Doozers, including some we'd picked up on the way, to help us figure out how to do it." The memory played of the trash giving way, and as it flew out it dissolved into nothingness, restoring their surroundings to the proper flowing water. "Mission done! We collected the trash, carted it off to the Trash Heap, and that was that..."

Except.. by the tone of his voice and that look on his face, that wasn't quite it.

[talkyourwayout]

"Woah," Louie uttered, in reaction to the information about the drought. But he stayed quiet through the rest - there was a reason Gobo was telling this story, after all. He didn't want to interrupt was clearly an important tale to his friend, though it was tempting to do so when Gobo made that remark about a good kind of mark to leave behind.

Gobo tried a lot, didn't he? Sure, things seemed to come so easily to him sometimes, at least from Louie's point of view... But it wasn't the case, was it? Gobo had to try to hit the right note. It was kind of like how things didn't come easily for Scrooge - either Scrooge - or how Louie himself wasn't as collected as he strived to appear.

So while he didn't say anything even then, he did put a hand on his friend's back, and left it there as he listened on... Ah. That was that, huh? Louie was familiar - to say the least - with things being hard to say. So he recognized that in Gobo, now. But he also knew that sometimes, a person needed - maybe even wanted - the push to talk.

"Oh, yeah? But... What else?"

[gobetween]

Gobo glanced aside at Louie, flashing him a brief smile. Then he sighed, and continued.

"Except the whole time, I still felt pretty lost. In the caves, in myself... I didn't think we were making good time, considering how important it was. When Wembley and Boober had an issue with part of the journey, it was Mokey that led the charge to cheer them up. It was Red and Wembley who made a deal for food supplies with some Doozers we found on the way. It was Boober who kept us grounded during the whole trip. And, when we couldn't figure out the blockage problem, it was Red who went all the way back to call in the calvary and get our homeground Doozers.

"Basically, everyone seemed to do something... except me."

[talkyourwayout]

Louie blinked in surprised confusion at that admission. "What are you talking about? You had to have done something, right?"

Gobo was the guy in charge; him not filling that role was near-impossible to imagine. It just didn't add up.

[gobetween]

"I'm getting there, I'm getting there." He chuckled softly, waving a hand, then sighed a bit. "It took talking to the Trash Heap afterward to make me realize it, but I'd been doing something the whole time, and not just during that adventure, but so many times before.

"I'd been leading. On our way down to the Everspring, it was me who'd been carrying the map and was keeping us on path. And it was my idea of what to do with the trash, and who delegated everyone's job in doing that. I'd even been the one who'd gotten us all ready in the first place. She helped me realize... no, remember... that that's what I do. I lead. I keep everybody together, I give them direction, and I find what everybody's best suited to. Just because I don't always seem to do any of the really big moments doesn't mean that I don't have meaning. The others can do what they do best... because I'm there leading them."

[talkyourwayout]

"What- What you do..." Louie said softly. That particular phrasing... It brought up a very specific memory, one that had recently been all but buried in meeting Fraggles, scheming for riches, and fighting off moon invaders. He stared off ahead of them, dumbstruck for a moment, before laughing a bit.

"Man, you really are good at this - helping people find what they need to do. You're a great leader, Gobo."

[gobetween]

He smiled, circling an arm around Louie's shoulders and pulling him in closer.

"That means a lot Louie, thank you."

[talkyourwayout]

"No, I... Thank you, Gobo," Louie breathed. "See, I used to not know what my part in things were, either. And even after I figured some of it out, it kind of got lost in all the other things going on in my life. This, right now? It reminded me."

[gobetween]

He looked at him for a moment, a bit taken aback. Then he smiled and squeezed him that much closer, resting their heads together.

"I'm glad."

[talkyourwayout]

Louie returned the hug, at that point. "You've done a lot for me, man. I think that's what Unca Scrooge was trying to get me to see. Part of it, at least..." He chuckled. "Sometimes I kinda hate how much he's right, but - well, this one is hard not to be happy about."

[gobetween]

Gobo was a bit confused, not having been there for the earlier conversation. But on the whole that didn't matter, and he just laughed gently as he glanced at Louie with a smile.

"Well, you're one of us, eh? Honorary Fraggle."

[talkyourwayout]

Louie nodded, laughing. "That's right, I am." He bumped against Gobo a bit. "You know what you said before? About being like brothers? That's cool, and I'm glad, but I'm really more glad that you're my friend who isn't my brother." He gave one more, sheepish giggle.

Yes, he had friends who weren't his brothers, but they were also his brothers' friends. And besides, he and Gobo had a special connection - he couldn't have put words to it even if he was comfortable trying, but it was there. Even if Gobo did befriend Dewey and Huey, it wouldn't change that.

[gobetween]

He chuckled softly and nodded. Then, one more squeeze and he sat back, resting on his hands some again.

"So, you ready to wake up?"

[talkyourwayout]

Louie stretched his arms over his head. "Sure thing," he responded.

Once he'd decided on it, waking up seemed to come almost instantly. It felt natural; there wasn't the kind of awkward shift from dreaming to being awake he would've expected. He didn't even feel groggy as his eyes opened - although there was something that felt... Not wrong, but different... Ah. Louie smiled as he rubbed the familiar shawl between his index finger and thumb.

[gobetween]

He stirred and sat up, hand automatically going to grab something sliding off him. When he realized what he was holding, he laughed softly.

"Oh. Mokey's shawl." It had been draped across him and Louie both, thanks to its size. He blinked, then snickered again. "Oh man, Mokey! I got so involved in our talk, I kinda forgot all about her... I guess she finished her drawing and came looking for me."

[talkyourwayout]

Louie gave a little snort from where he was still lying down. "Gobo, you're bad at this," he teased. "Go find her, man. I'll be fine to just laze around here."

[gobetween]

He gave him a quiet "You sure?" look but when further nudged, he chuckled and slid off the bench, draping the shawl around his own shoulders in a passable imitation of the Fraggle it belonged too.

"Alright, but I'll still be around if you need me, Louie." Waving, he turned and headed back inside the house.

[talkyourwayout]

"I know you will."

Louie did, indeed, just lay on the bench for a good while. He knew what he had to do, but he wanted a little more time to think over what he and Gobo had discussed.

Eventually, though, he got up and headed in, himself. He poked his head into the kitchen, glancing around. "Hey, Unca Scrooge?"

[moneymatters]

He was still in there, having decided to bring a book to wait for Louie to return. Glancing up, he closed it and sat up with a smile, sliding out of the seat at the table.

"Ah, welcome back Louie. Hope you had a good talk?"

[talkyourwayout]

Rather than saying anything at first, Louie crossed the kitchen and gave Scrooge a quick hug.

"I'm gonna figure it out. And... Until then, I'll be okay."

[moneymatters]

Scrooge was momentarily surprised, then smiled and returned the hug while there.

"That's all I needed to hear."